Stamp Duty avoidance schemes

Rhino666

There are are a number of stamp duty avoidance schemes on the internet that claim they can work around stamp duty payment on house purchases. Has anyone got any experience of these schemes ?

westv

100% scams.

00ec25

use the "search this thread" function on the bar above your post #1 - there are numerous threads on this - the biggest one as recently as 1st March included examples of people having to repay tax to HMRC

FTBFun

They don't work - its an aggressive scheme that uses "sub-sale relief" (normally designed for instalment sales of property) to stop stamp duty being paid at all. HMRC do know about these schemes:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/avoidance/spotlights10.htm

iB1

I think that one of the other threads should be made a "sticky" at the top of the forum, as this question seems to crop up on a regular basis

Wakey2008

Avoiding SDLT is tax evasion is illegal.

The only ways to legitimately avoid it is by being exempt (ie first time buyer) or under the threshold.

Rhino666

I would imagine that lots of people have used these schemes and avoided significant sums of stamp duty. HMRC are overworked and understaffed so cases such as these are not likely to be dealt with in the short term.

It seems that tax spending in the UK rarely has anything to do with the source of that taxation and most tax spending goes on members of the population who, for various reasons, pay minimal or no tax. Most taxation in the UK is regressive and has contributed to the environment we now live in.